The WPT Prime Championship Has Become Poker’s Mid-Major Super Bowl

This December one of the biggest tournaments of the year is coming to Wynn Las Vegas.

And no, it’s not ‘The Freeroll’.

It’s the end-of-the-year $1,100 mid-stakes monolith, the WPT Prime Championship which in just two short years has established itself as one of the year’s premier events for recreational shot-takers, grinders, and professionals alike. Topping 10,000 entries last year, the $5 million guaranteed tournament promises players a chance rarely seen on the poker calendar – the chance to turn a low four-figure buy-in into a life-changing six- or seven-figure score inside one of poker’s most acclaimed venues.

Last year, Calvin Anderson, the five-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and former PocketFives #1-ranked online poker player in the world, did just that. He topped the 10,512 entry field to walk away with the $1,388,280 first-place prize. For Anderson, who has been a staple of the game for well over a decade with more than $6 million in live tournament earnings, the win was far and away the biggest score of his career while also representing, perhaps, the biggest achievement of his time in poker as well.

“I’ve never had a million-dollar score,” Anderson said, looking back at his victory. “So, at the end of the day, the money itself is up there. I mean, for that score to be in such a low buy-in [event], it’s pretty special to me.

“In terms of actual achievements of anything I’ve ever been able to do, I mean, I won a $1K with 10,512 people in it – and I didn’t use one time bank on top of it. So I don’t think that there can be really much of a better accomplishment for somebody’s career.”

The accolades that come with winning an event of this size would top most people’s poker resume. However, the opportunity that the WPT Prime Championship represents is in the headline here. Outside of a few events during the summer in Vegas, there aren’t many chances for players to make the kind of return that competing for the WPT Prime Championship offers – the possibility of a 1000x return on the buy-in.

Ben Ludlow, with nearly $500,000 in career earnings according to The Hendon Mob, has played and cashed in both years, and has plans to make it back this time around as well.

“As a mid-stakes pro there are only so many times a year you can win ‘life-changing’ money, so even though it takes a lot of luck to win something like [the WPT Prime Championship], I would consider it a ‘can’t miss’ event and you need to fire as many [times] as you can to make Day 2.”

Newly-minted 16-time WSOP Circuit Ring winner Dan Lowery echoed those sentiments. Lowery has made a name for himself as a top pro on the mid-stakes scene with more than $3.5 million in live tournament earnings. He has played nearly everywhere in the U.S. but was quick to talk about the importance of the upcoming WPT Prime event.

“I’ve told many people that the [WPT Prime Championship] was possibly the best tournament I’ve ever played outside the WSOP Main Event. Considering the sheer size of it, the ease in which it was run, and the 1300+ buy-ins for 1st place, it was nothing short of spectacular.”

Lowery made a deep run in 2023, playing the part of chip leader through most of the later days of the tournament, ultimately finishing in 18th for $58,176 – a top-15 career result for him in what he expressed was one of his “best and most dominating performances.”

“For mid-stakes players such as myself, I feel this particular tournament can be viewed as our ‘Main Event.’ It has a great structure, it has several great players, but I’d say that the majority of the field is more recreational players. So there’s nothing more to fear there than if you were playing a $400-$1700 tourney on any of the mid-stakes tours. And the best part about it is that it’s run by some of the best staff and at the most beautiful property in Vegas in my opinion.”

It’s tough to deny that it being held at the Wynn is a bonus and this year the property’s Encore Ballroom is expected to be anywhere from incredibly healthy to absolutely packed. In its inaugural year, the event carried a $2M guarantee and the room was flooded with a field of 5,430 entries. Stephen Song, who had not yet been crowned one of poker’s best big field crushers, took home what was then a career-high cash of $712,650. It remains the second largest of his career.

As mentioned, last year the field essentially doubled, putting it among the largest live fields of all time. It’s the allure of ending the year on a career uptick that brings out shot-takers and grinders who play the WPT Prime as if it’s their Super Bowl.

“What makes this good is that in these lower buy-in tournaments for the vast majority of the field, it’s not a lower buy-in tournament,” Anderson added. “It’s a big shot for people and there’s build-up.

“People travel really far to come play this and they hype it up.”

The hype is only amplified by the presence of plenty of top-tier pros who, perhaps, normally wouldn’t play a moderate buy-in of $1,100 but because of the event’s upside, the field becomes quite formidable.

“I love small field events because it’s easy to see a path to victory,” Ludlow said. “But there is nothing like the feeling of being deep in a large field tournament. It’s totally energizing and wild to think about how many people there were and how many people are left. Also, any time there’s money like that on the line, the adrenaline and focus kick up a notch. There’s a definite buzz when something like the Prime is down to just a few tables, someone’s life is changing no matter what. That will always get me going.”

Ultimately, the WPT Prime Championship is building a reputation as a proving ground for players of every walk. A massive, energetic minefield of poker’s ups and downs. There’s plenty of potential and pitfalls and a wide variety of strategies in how best to make it to the end.

“I feel over the years I’ve solidified my place in the mid-stakes scene. I have tons of experience in navigating large fields. I’ve won several small buy-in tourneys with 1000-3000 players. What I try to do to go deep is settle in and observe every table. I obviously try to get to a point where I’m in control of each of those tables if allowed. But I try not to get stubborn against the better players at each table if there are better spots to play pots against,” Lowery said.

“And to combat the feeling of being overwhelmed by a tourney of this size, I strictly focus on the eight other players at my table only. This is crucial,” Lowery continued. “It’s easy to get caught up in looking at huge stacks at other tables and feeling like I’m falling behind. Or looking at the vast number of tables full of eager, skilled players and feeling like it’s going to be too much to overcome. It’s not. You just have to play your best at one table, survive, and advance. Those tables will eventually break around you, and you’ll start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Then it really gets fun.”

For Anderson, he likely plans to use the same approach he used last year to win it all. A combination of late registration to save some taxing time, aggression to build a stack, and, ultimately, fearlessness.

“The way to go into these things oftentimes is the fearlessness of that – we’re all going to die, we’re all going to get knocked out, we’re all going to bust,” Anderson said. “And you want to make the best plays you can without fear…but it overtakes a lot of people in these spots, which is unfortunate, but that’s kind of how the game goes.”

But plan as one might, in a field of size, ultimately it’s going to take things breaking the right way to go from one of many thousand players to hoisting the WPT Prime trophy as the last one left.

“I think, like any tournament, it’s about not getting unlucky,” Ludlow said. “You just have to do it even more.

“I try not to think about how big the field is,” he continued. “If anything, it’s sometimes helpful to be in a big field because you look away from the clock, you play a hand, look back and like fifty people can be gone. That’s always a nice mental boost. But my mindset for any tournament is always just to stay present and keep playing until they tell me to stop. Nothing else matters.”

The WPT Prime Championship kicks off on December 8 with four starting flights and plays to a champion on December 14.